We’ve just scratched the surface

My 5 Words? We’ve just scratched the surface!

cc licensed ( BY NC ND ) flickr photo shared by Preserved Light by Caillum Smith

It’s been a fun couple of weeks! I have learned so much in ETMOOC already and I know we have just scratched the surface. However, over time, glaciers that scratch the surface of the earth create breathtaking beauty!

Although I am enjoying all the tips and tools, I am really looking forward to developing relationships and becoming a better teacher. Most of this post is what I learned from the Intro and Advanced Blogging webinars and the links people posted during the chat of the webinar. I intend for it to be a used to support a group of teachers that are new to blogging along with this presentation.

Link to others in posts.

  • It is a professional courtesy.
  • The net is a net because of the links. Hyperlinking to where you got your inspiration or to give more detail establishes a chain of information for anyone to follow without creating excessively long posts.
  • It creates pingbacks so that even if you don’t comment on a post, the blogger knows you have read their post and found something of worth.

Create an about.me page–about.me/susancampo

  • A great way to establish your “brand” and provide your PLN with an easy way to find you.
  • My background image is from a family trip on an Alaskan cruise last summer.

Use Flipboard on your iPad or tablet. Sue Waters describes it here. (Scroll down…way down.)

  • I love it for combining all the streams of information.
  • It is very visual, but also allows you to interact with your PLN by commenting, retweeting, etc.
  • I like how I can also mix in my Facebook feed, where I only connect to family and close friends, without linking Facebook with my professional communities.
20130129-124354.jpgImages are very important in blog posts.
  • Seeing how blogs are presented in Flipboard, Google+ and Google Reader, I understand how important it is to have a visual to accompany your post.
  • Of course, images or other media can be the whole post. Try out this “An image in 5 words” activity to “kick start your blog”.

Easily find Creative Commons media and the meanings of all those CC licenses!

The most popular sites for images:

The most popular sites for clip art:

The most popular sites for sounds and music:

Easily create correct attributions for images you use.

  • Use Compfight either as a plugin in your WordPress blog or directly on their website. Edublogs runs a filter that prevents inappropriate image searches.
  • Also ImageCodr will create the HTML code for a very unobtrusive attribution for Flickr images. (see below)

Comment often and add some html code to comments.

  • Comment boxes do not allow for formatting. Adding some HTML code allows you to use bold, italics, etc. and to hyperlink to other pages/blogs.
  • Thanks go out to someone in the Advanced Blogging webinar who shared a link to Mrs. Yollis’ post. If the kids in Grade 2 and 3 can do it, so can we! Try it out in the comments below!
3 Comments
  1. Hi Susan

    Glad my sessions have been helping.

    Thanks for the reminder about ImageCodr. I forgot to go back and test it! And the reminder about pingbacks. I was going to add an example to my advanced blogging post. Will try to remember to update it.

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